Do animated banner ADS hurt websites? The moderating roles of website loyalty and need for cognition

While extant research has examined the effectiveness of banner ads, relatively little is known about the effect of animated banner ads on consumers' attitudes and revisit intentions toward the host website and the brand advertised in the ad. This research contributes to and enhances our understanding of this topic by exploring and identifying consumer responses to animated banner ads on websites and then empirically testing a conceptual model. Results show that exposure to animated banner ads on a website results in consumer skepticism toward the website, which negatively influences their attitudes toward the website and the brand in the ad and intentions to revisit the website. These results are moderated by consumers' loyalty toward the website and by need for cognition (NFC). Empirical results support the proposed hypotheses.